A former presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adebayo Adewole, has claimed the country is edging towards a one-man rule, with the All Progressives Congress (APC) becoming its first victim.
Adewole spoke on Thursday, during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“People worry about a one-party state and that Nigeria is becoming a one-party state. In my own candidate observation and following the evidence, Nigeria is not going towards a one-party state. What Nigeria is at risk of is a one-man rule,” Adewole said on the breakfast show.
“If anybody in APC thinks that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is trying to help APC to become the dominant party and [make Nigeria] a one-party state, that’s not the agenda. The agenda is to have a one-man rule.”
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According to him, the first casualty of that alleged one-man rule is the APC itself.
“They are inside there, and they are getting used to having no internal democracy. They are getting used to being dictated to by their leader, who is the president now.
“They are not that robust a political party or other political party you will find in Africa, where their internal processes and the people in the party are stronger than those who are in government, and the people in the leadership of the party are in charge of performance, measurement, and supervision of government,” he added.
Several opposition parties are battling a leadership crisis, with different groups laying claims to positions.
But Adewole wants them to “try as much as possible to minimise errors and internal wrangling and to be united about running their party”.
He noted that every party has one or two elements that will probably be like a saboteur.
His comment follows the mass defection of politicians, including governors, members of the National Assembly, and others, to the APC.
Already, the ruling party has over 31 governors and an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly.
Critics have warned that the development spells doom for the country’s democracy with less than one year to the general elections.
